Coping Mechanisms
by Ablemarle
Summary: Sakura finds herself a boyfriend outside of Team Seven, and her boys aren't sure how to deal with it. "He's nice," she put one hand on her hip, leaned in towards them, and spoke absolutely matter-of-factly, "… and nothing like any of you. He's not annoying, he doesn't randomly abandon me, and he talks about his emotions!" [TEAM SEVEN x SAKURA] Rated M, lemons
1. Sneaking Around

Author's Note: Timeline is a little fuzzy in this one, but let's just overlook that. I'm a sucker for Team Seven love and smut. You COULD consider this an alternate universe where Sakura actually talks to boys outside of Team Seven, and where Sasuke comes back to the village of his own volition – but really, it's just a universe I dreamed up in my head.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this fanfic. I don't own Naruto, or it would end up like this.

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While they might be capable of pummeling each other to a near pulp, and sometimes to a pulp, the members of Team Seven were nothing short of inseparable. Even when Sasuke wasn't with them, Naruto and Sakura would always go to lunch and dinner with each other, and Kakashi had been known to join on occasion. On top of that, ever since Sasuke had gotten back to the village a few months ago (all red-faced, panting, and scraped up like he'd just ran for miles to get back to them), the four of them trained together, ate together, and even had sleepovers at Kakashi's apartment occasionally. That's why it went without say that something was up once Sakura stopped showing up to the training sessions, and never made an effort to go to dinner afterwards.

Oddly enough, Sasuke was the first one to point this out. Team Seven, minus their beloved pinkette, were sitting in the third training ground, taking a breather after a heavy bout of free-for-all taijutsu. The admittedly weary Uchiha took a swig from a leather flask, and wiped his mouth on the back of his forearm. He turned towards Kakashi and Naruto; the blonde was chugging the rest of his water bottle, and Kakashi was sipping from his own flask through his mask. Sasuke considered them for a moment, before they both turned their attention to him. Naruto crushed his water bottle, and threw it to his side.

"What's up, ya' bastard?" The jinchūriki questioned him amicably.

"I was thinking," Sasuke trailed off, "… We haven't seen much of Sakura lately."

Naruto broke out into a feral grin, "What, you come back and you just think you can have Sakura-chan just like that? Nuh uh, no way – I'm the one that's had to deal with all those beatings!" He was getting ready to pounce at that bastard, Sasuke, once again, before Kakashi intervened with a few sobering words.

"She doesn't belong to either of you," the grey-haired nin pointed out, then flashed a toothy grin under his mask, "… in reality, she's all of ours."

"Ew, you're gross."

"Really, you shouldn't say things like that. Pervert."

Kakashi could practically feel their judgmental stares pummeling the back of his head as he turned away out of shame. He cleared his throat and stared at his two pupils. "Although, Sasuke is right. Do either of you know what she's been up to?"

"Well, I heard from Ino-chan that Sakura-chan got a boyfriend," Naruto finally offered up.

Suddenly, he was staring into three eyes full of animosity, not necessarily directed _towards_ him, mostly towards whoever dared to court Sakura without their permission. Suddenly, and with great reason, Naruto felt _extremely_ cornered.

"How long ago did you find this out?"

"Why didn't you tell us when you found out?"

Naruto scrambled up, and standing, he backed away from the two men that were suddenly encroaching on his space. "I-I don't know," he stuttered, "I didn't think it was a big deal! Do you think that's why she won't hang out with us anymore?"

With that question, it looked like Kakashi and Sasuke wanted to grab him by the neck of his jumpsuit and shake him. "Are you stupid?" Sasuke squinted his eyes at him, looking him over like he was trying to find some sort of malady. "Of course that's why," their sensei took a deep breath and wiped sweat off his brow. A sudden, particularly loud growl from Naruto's stomach snapped everyone back to reality. It was about dinner time, and they were all a little hungry and irritable. "Guess it's time for dinner," Kakashi remarked matter-of-factly. "Ramen?" Naruto happily offered, nearly drooling. "Why not," Sasuke replied, as he had learned from years of being around his teammate, there was no use in arguing. "Fine with me," the Copy Nin agreed and so, they made their way to Ichiraku with a certain kunoichi still in the back of all of their minds.

"I'm tellin' you, man, there's no way it'll last too long. I'll make sure of that," Naruto exclaimed, spewing ramen broth and chewed up noodles in Sasuke's direction. The Uchiha grimaced, shot him a dirty look, and wiped himself off carefully. "It better not. I'm tired of her thinking she can skip out on training, and still expect to go on missions with us," Sasuke tapped his chopsticks against the table, not harboring as much of an appetite as Naruto. "Yeah, likely excuse. Whatever you say." Naruto rolled his eyes, smirking to himself at Sasuke's nonchalant exterior. He knew Sasuke was actually clamming up on the inside, at the thought of Sakura with another man. Kakashi was taking advantage of his student's back-and-forth banter to sneak bites of ramen beneath his mask.

"We should tell him about the time she peed her pants on that mission, because we scared her while she was hiding in a bush. Do you think he's a civilian or a ninja?" Naruto pondered ideas on how to scare him out of his wits and _away_ from Sakura-chan.

"There's no way she would date a ninja," Kakashi reasoned, shaking his head. Upon saying that, all three of their moods darkened considerably, realizing that _they_ were ninjas.

(Meanwhile, in a restaurant on the other side of the district, Sakura was sneezing uncontrollably at the dinner table. She apologized to her boyfriend and shot him a sheepish smile before continuing to explain what it was like to be a ninja, as he stared on in awe.)

"Well, whatever he is. We need to stop this before it gets too out of hand. Any plans?" Sasuke question grimly, looking between his two teammates. His hands were folded across a bottle of sake, and his chin rested on his hands.

Naruto slurped up the last of his ramen, and let his eyes wander around the ramen stand as he thought deeply. "We could sneak into her apartment. Like we do to Kakashi-sensei!" His eyes lit up and he exclaimed his brilliant idea.

"That's an awful, disgusting idea. She'd be upset with us." Sasuke shot another disgruntled look at Naruto, but he had to admit – he didn't really care if Sakura was upset with them, as long as she was safe and out of her boyfriend's _probably_ harmful, tight, ugly grasp.

"Why didn't you care if you'd upset me by sneaking into my apartment?" Kakashi frowned, furrowing his eyebrows at the two of them. "It's not a bad idea," he decided with finality, and took a sip from his glass of sake.

"So, that's what we're gonna do, right?" The blonde grinned widely.

"Unless anyone can think of anything better." Kakashi might not be expressing it as wildly as his younger students, but he was _suffering_ thinking of how _that guy_ got to touch Sakura, his favorite student, in ways he never imagined… until now. The grey-haired sensei gave a thick cough, and downed the rest of his sake.

The three men of Team Seven began mapping out her apartment and how they would go about sneaking in. It wasn't too hard to figure out - all three of them had visited before, and a good ninja _always_ cases their environment. They decided to go right after dinner, just in case Sakura had plans on bringing the guy back to her place. All three agreed not to intervene with a goodnight kiss, no matter how hard it would be. They also agreed not to knock him out, whisk Sakura away, or throw a couple of kunai at her and the boy as warning shots. The plan went like this: spy on them as much as possible, wait for Sakura to go into her house, and wait in her bedroom for her, so they could all give her a nice, in-depth talking-to for abandoning them the past few weeks.

The trio snuck to the roof of her apartment, and peered over into the street to watch for any stray pink-haired girls with any particularly ratty looking boyfriends. They actually had no idea what he looked like, but they liked to assume. It made them feel better. In a ninja village, it wasn't rare to see people on the roofs, during the daytime or the night. Although they had concealed their chakra, all of them made certain to stay low to the roof as Sakura was _also_ a shinobi. The few odd scares of people with blonde hair tinted pink in the red lights of restaurants kept the three of them on edge. No conversation was released between any of them; they were used to stalking missions, after all. Sometimes even the slightest noise could put you in harm's way. In this case, if they were caught, harm's way was Sakura's fist connecting to each one of their skulls.

Finally, after about two hours of hunting with hungry eyes though crowds, Kakashi spotted the shock of pink and pointed quickly, so that the other two noticed as well. The impatient thought on all of their minds was asking them where she had been for so long, and who she had been with. The question was so close to being answered.

As Sakura thinned out from the crowd among the streets and walked towards her apartment, they realized a brunette man in civilian's clothes was following behind her and _holding_ her pretty, delicate… soft hand. Naruto gave a quiet sigh at the thought of holding Sakura-chan's hand. Sasuke's eyes burned ferociously with his sharingan in tow. Kakashi narrowed his eyes, following that hand wherever it went.

Slowly, but surely, the couple made their way up to Sakura's apartment and stood on her balcony outside of her door for a moment. The boy had taken his hand from hers, and was now moving to brush her hair behind her ear while saying something about how much he enjoyed the night. Sakura was leaning into that very hand, clearly enjoying the prospect of what was coming next. The trio above them, looking on wearily, was on the literal edge of their seats. They were very close to falling off of that roof and pouncing on him and their beloved. "Well, goodnight, Ryo-chan, I really enjoyed tonight, too." Sakura hugged Ryo, and shot him a smile that made the trio's hearts melt as she turned away, even though that wasn't intended on her behalf at all.

Naruto looked like he might cry at any given moment. Sasuke was chewing his bottom lip. Kakashi's fingers wouldn't stop fidgeting against his pant leg. The suspense was chewing at them all. Sakura was ready to go into her apartment, but Ryo was clearly leaning in for a kiss, his lips protruding in almost a goofy-fashion. Clearly, this was lost on Sakura. He leaned in a little further. She backed up and flashed a more awkward smile at him, and gave a short giggle. "Well… Um. Do you want to see each other tomorrow?" She asked, still confused at what he wanted from her. Ryo didn't respond, instead he leaned even closer so that their faces were almost touching. Sakura took a step back, and raised an eyebrow. "Oh… kay. I'm gonna go now. Goodnight!" She pecked him on the cheek, and opened her apartment door and disappeared behind it.

The trio shared looks of elation as they made their way across the roof. Their well-trained ears heard Sakura tidying up her place outside of her bedroom, and they took that opportunity to carefully open the window and sneak through, only to sit down on her mattress promptly. Her three teammates didn't have time to be triumphant and laugh at Ryo, as they were too busy rehearsing their speeches in their heads. All of them were fidgeting.

Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled a sigh. She was absolutely exhausted from the long day of walking around with Ryo, visiting the market, eating dinner, and brushing off that awkward encounter a few minutes ago. Seriously, what had just gotten into him? He hadn't even answered her about tomorrow. Why did she have the worst luck with boys? She wondered as she made her way through the hallway that connected her bedroom to the living room. The pinkette opened the door to her bedroom, and switched on the light with her back to the room.

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Author's Note: I am so so happy with how this is turning out so far. I should have the second chapter out very soon! READ & REVIEW, love you guys


	2. Cotton Candy Clouds

Author's Note: Pretty proud of myself for getting this out faster than usual, ALSO I'm proud of how this turned out! This is probably the last chapter, because I don't really see this going any further. The first chapter was just a set-up for this, honestly. Lol. Enjoy

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters affiliated with it.

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"So, what's he like?" Sasuke whispered in the dead silence of her room. Sakura jumped and gave a small chirp of surprise. Then, she quickly snapped around to examine her teammates sitting on her bed, staring at her accusingly.

"What the hell, guys?!" She exclaimed, unable to believe that they literally snuck into her bedroom while she was on a date. Already pretty fed up with the fact that they had the gall to do so, Sakura stomped towards all of them, and began pointing at them as she spoke. "He's nice," she put one hand on her hip, leaned in towards them, and spoke absolutely matter-of-factly, "… and nothing like any of you. He's not annoying, he doesn't randomly abandon me, and he talks about his emotions!"

All three of them sat on her bed, looking remarkably like academy kids being scolded, and she gave a defeated sigh. "Really… I love you guys, but get off my back! I can have a boyfriend if I want one!"

"We love you, though, Sakura-chan," Naruto pitifully croaked out. Sasuke and Kakashi were slumped over, staring at the ground, both devoid of any emotion – but Sakura learned long ago to read their body language to a tee. "A-and you haven't been coming to practice lately!" Naruto pointed back at her, gathering a little of that classic knuckle-headedness to help Sakura feel like this was _her_ fault.

"That doesn't give you the right to sneak into my room and stalk me while I'm on a date!" The pinkette snapped back.

"Actually, it does. We worry, you know."

"And we weren't _really_ stalking you."

Sakura threw her hands in the air and let out a strangled scream. She was pretty close to crying out of sheer frustration, but instead she balled up her fists in her pink locks of hair, and flopped face down between the boys on her bed. Oh, God, it was so comfy. She wished she could just fall asleep right now… Until, a hand started tracing her spine and moving to massage her shoulders. Immediately, she turned around and sat up, balancing on her calves. "Stop. Now." She bit out venomously, to which Kakashi immediately pulled his hand away. "You seemed stressed," he smiled beneath his mask and she watched his eye crease, full of mirth.

"Maybe I am."

"Maybe you are."

The kunoichi moved to lay down on her back and stare at the ceiling. All the boys were staring back at her expectantly. In anticipation of what? Sakura wasn't entirely sure, to be honest. The last time all four of them were gathered in her room, on her bed, it hadn't been with entirely pure intentions. When Sakura thought of her team, she thought of the unbreakable bonds, the heated spars, the soft touches in between bouts of feral grabs, gropes, squeezes… She blushed fiercely against her white linens. Team seven wasn't exactly the same as other teams, as far as she had observed. They were more closely knit in more ways than one; frequent sleepovers, missions, and emotional damage between the four caused that same intimacy.

Sakura closed her eyes and traced her thoughts back to the first time they had all wrapped limbs around each other on top of Kakashi's bed. It had been heated, rushed, and _desperate_. Sitting in Kakashi's lap, Sakura almost felt like a slave to her team's ministrations. The way Sasuke latched onto her lips while Kakashi buried his face in her hair, and Naruto worked at lapping up her juices down _there_ made her stomach clench as she recalled it all in vivid detail. Unbeknownst to herself at this very moment, the pinkette was gathering heat from her stomach down to her core. She squeaked in response to how her shorts material rubbed against herself as she moved, and when she looked up in embarrassment, she realized that the three men looked like ravenous wolves. Sakura knew the look, from each of them, because she'd seen it enough times – this wasn't a new thing for them, and it suddenly clicked in her mind as to why they were _so_ _jealous_. And really, something about that turned a gear in Sakura's gut.

She unbuckled her light pink skirt and shimmied out of her under-shorts without taking a breath (the rest of her team, however, was holding theirs). Her teammates stared on as she painfully, slowly took her boots off. She lifted her shirt over her head, and laid back down on her back, clad in her undergarments. A deft, small, pale hand reached down and drew small circles around her sweet spot. Sakura knocked her head back against her pillow, trying desperately to keep her hooded eyes open. Almost immediately, Naruto lunged at her but Sakura prodded him back lightly with a bare foot to his chest. In response, he grabbed onto her thigh and dug in _hard_.

Sasuke laid himself down next to his lovely pink teammate and rubbed his thumb gently over her soft mounds underneath her lacy, baby blue bra. He tweaked her pink, pert nipple and moved her bra down to envelope her in his mouth. Her strangled cries were music to their ears as he bit at and wrapped his tongue around the firm nipple every which way.

Kakashi had already removed his pants, and was currently moving to take his usual position behind Sakura. He lifted her up onto his lap, and she bucked against him at the feel of his hard length against her entrance. On the other hand, Naruto couldn't hold back any longer; he was sliding her panties off to get to the wet folds that had a tangy, _delicious_ taste. Quickly, he rubbed at the nub near the top of her mound with his thumb, applying just the right amount of pressure to make her hips go wild under him and on top of Kakashi, whom elicited a soft groan at each hard buck Sakura released from her hips.

Naruto was inspired by those bucks to take one long lick from the base of her folds to the nub atop of them. He flicked and swirled his tongue around the pearl over and over again, until her face flushed and her fingers were tingling. Meanwhile, Sasuke watched as she opened her mouth to moan, and took advantage of the opportunity to gently grab her by the chin, and nip at his wet, pink velvet lips that he loved to taste so much. He kissed her passionately, which always surprised her – and on top of that, he was impatient, but always gentle. Sakura swore to herself she was over Sasuke, but when he kissed her like this, it ached deep down in her. And she knew that _Naruto_ was basically over her, but he made her whole body tingle as he ferociously licked and nibbled at her clit and folds, and she _did_ love both of them.

Kakashi on the other hand, she figured he was purely doing this out of lust, but she knew it was more than that the first time he pulled his mask down just to kiss her after one of these sessions. Kakashi wasn't the type to just casually have sex with his pupils; he loved them all, like he had loved his own genin team. Sakura had seen a picture of his team by his bedside once, and she noted the uncanny resemblance in expression between her and his teammate (she seemed to recall her name being Rin). However, it was silly and cocky of her to think she could replace a fallen teammate in her sensei's heart. She could've sworn she heard him whisper that girl's name in her ear once, though, as he gripped her backside and thrust into her before cumming.

Speaking of which, Sakura was lost in the moment; she was arching her back, mewling, and pressing her face against Sasuke, holding onto him and nuzzling into his shoulder. Her body felt like cooked spaghetti underneath Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi's warming ministrations. Suddenly, Kakashi brushed a strand of her hair away from her face and thrust up into her, hitting _exactly_ where she was begging for him to. Sakura's vision went to white hot heat, burning up every nerve in her body as Sasuke held onto her through the orgasm. Kakashi held her hips steady as she bounced against him, taking him even deeper, and he continued to thrust into her as she came. Naruto, likewise, was busy stroking carefully and licking at her pink curls, while grabbing ferociously with one hand at her lovely, milky thighs, and another hand on her perky tits.

Sakura fell very fast back onto her bed, so fast, in fact, that her head was still spinning. The pink-haired kunoichi's legs were shaking like a newborn deer's. Kakashi and Sasuke laid down next to her, and Naruto was laying on her downstairs regions, with her leg wrapped around his torso in an attempt to steady herself. Her hands found Kakashi and Sasuke's hair, which she gratefully latched onto and ran her fingers through as she calmed down. Sasuke grabbed one of her hands as she put it down, and stroked the top of it with his thumb gently.

However, Sakura had other things besides the usual after-sex group cuddling in mind. She wanted to make _them_ feel good. Sakura moved herself to get on all fours, facing her ass to Kakashi and unbuttoning Sasuke's pants in record timing. She looked up at him, and he swallowed before putting his hand on her head, and guiding himself into her mouth. Sakura's hands were tangled in his dark curls at the base of his length, but she removed one in consideration of Naruto, who was already unbuttoning himself. Sakura greedily grabbed him up, stroking him back and forth and eagerly, admittedly kind of roughly, pumped his length in her hand. Naruto's head was thrown back in pure pleasure, and Sasuke's eyes were closed, his mouth barely open in ecstasy as Sakura's tongue licked around the head of his member. Kakashi had taken himself in hand, before pushing back into her swollen, pink core, from behind, and began pumping into her while waves of pleasure rang through him.

The four of them continued on like this until all three of the boys came. First, it was Naruto, who came in Sakura's fist, and groaned contentedly. Second, it was Sasuke, who released his load of cum into Sakura's mouth with a soft gasp. Third, it was Kakashi, from behind Sakura, into her wet, hot, core, almost silently save for a deep grumble in his throat.

The sticky, sweetness between each of them was still fresh on their bodies, and they basked in it. After the finale, the four laid there in silence, pressed up against each other in different ways until they fell asleep. However, that was not before the smaller, pinker-haired teammate gently whispered, "I love you, guys, too."

Sakura dreamed of floating on cotton candy clouds, breaking off fluffy pieces, and feeding them to her content, smiling teammates.

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Authors Note: More graphic than I planned. READ & REVIEW please! Thank you


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